You’ve heard of speakeasy secret bars in Singapore, now Hotel NuVe Heritage at Purvis Street is a secret boutique hotel with a hidden entrance. You have to walk to the end of Yummo Chow, a cafe, to reach the reception.

Entrance to Suite

Purvis Street, as you know, is the heart of the city. It’s a street of old colonial shophouses where fantastic Michelin starred restaurants line. So as a boutique hotel which lacks space in the city, Hotel NuVe Heritage has no swimming pool and gym. What Hotel NuVe Heritage has is excellent location. Location is everything when you’re travelling.

Staircase After Entrance to Suite

There are only 19 rooms in this 6-storey hotel. The most affordable room, Quaint Queen, starts from $155/night, which is super reasonable for the location. We got the Suite Photographer, which starts from $332/night. And the suite is gigantic.

We opened the door to the suite to see a centrepiece of an antique camera. There was a flight of stairs before we came a room with a high, attic-like ceiling. There is a king-size bed but still there is so much space.

Space left for a tv console.

Space left for a chaise lounge and a writing desk.

There is even space left for a bar! Party up!

Mr Fitness said, “Is this toilet bigger than the Capella?” I don’t think so, but it is huge and has two basins. The toilet is flanked by toilet on the left and bathroom on the right.

The Japanese-style toilet bowl means the seat is warm! SO SHIOK to sit on it, I didn’t want to stand up. Haha.

I was quite surprised to find a bathtub in a boutique hotel; usually boutique hotels don’t have it. They also have rainshower and normal shower. It takes some time for the water to get warm, so you may want to leave it running when you brush your teeth. (I know, waste water, but it’s cold!)

Another amenity they provide is that everything you see in the room is complimentary. By everything I mean the snacks, and alcoholic and soft drinks hor. I don’t mean the hairdryer, safe, weighing machine or coffee machine ok? Please don’t take those home.

One very good thing about this staycation is I only brought a tee, a pair of shorts, iphone charger, and a camera. If there were a gym or swimming pool, I would need to carry so many items. Everything else–like toothbrush and complimentary wifi–is provided. Our schedule: we ate lunch, checked into the hotel, took a short nap, shopped around Bugis Junction, ate dinner, watched a late-night movie, and slowly strolled back to the hotel. It’s lovely to stay in the city. #actatas #acttourist

So the next day, there was a complimentary breakfast. You choose a breakfast main, and there is freeflow of bread and beverages.

It’s nice NOT to have breakfast buffet. Every staycation, during breakfast buffet, I feel like I need to stuff my stomach with food until the food reaches the top of my oesophagus to get my money’s worth. But here, we ate just enough, leaving room for lunch later. We took an easy walk to Suntec, cutting through Shaw Towers, for lunch.

To summarize, here are the positive and negative points of the Hotel NuVe Heritage:

Negative:
-Water takes some time to heat up.
-No swimming pool or gym.

Positive:
-Easy and fuss-free staycation. Just bring one set of clothes and phone charger.
-Complimentary wifi.
-Perfect central location. Walk everywhere. Leave your car at home.
-Snacks and drinks, including hard liquor and beer, are free.
-Japanese toilet. No more cold toilet seats!
-Fun secret location (behind a cafe)
-Experience living in a colonial historic shophouse like our pioneers did.
-They ticked all the boxes of amenities I was looking for, mainly, toothbrush, hairdryer, and safe. (Safe is very important in a hotel room, but surprisingly, not all hotels have it.)

It looks nice, but if I was going for a staycation in Singapore, hotel’s facilities would probably be more important to me (ie swimming pool,dipping pool, sauna/jacuzzi/steam room, gym etc) than compared with a tourist because we would be spending more time in the hotel (then exploring outside) !